Thrashers’ GM Teflon Don

The Slap-of-the-Week many times is awarded to athletes with guns, swimmers who decide to hit bongs in public or guys who sucker-punch opponents on the sidelines but occasionally we do award it to those managers and GMs who show a high enough level of incompetency.That said, this week’s slap goes to Atlanta Thrashers’ GM Don Waddell GM.

For those of you who do not know the NHL exists, Waddell is the orchestrator of one of the NHL’s most struggling franchises. At the helm for about ten years, Teflon Don has only taken a team to the playoffs on one occasion and that team was sent packing in a four-game sweep. In a league where a majority of the teams are handed a playoff spot, that record speaks volumes.

DW said earlier in the week, the team needs to start winning games and how does a guy like Waddell accomplish that? By trading away Ilya Kovalchuk, the face of his franchise , one of the most talented players in the world for a slew of unproven players and leaving his fans hanging out to dry. After the trade Waddell had the audacity to say “I don’t think it sets us back at all. I think it moves us forward.”

SLAP!

A landslide choice, Waddell joins Matt Millen the Detroit Lions’ CEO who received the Bitch-Slap-of-the-Week a few weeks into the 2009 NFL season.

Since the trade that rocked the hockey world some of the mainstream media continues to hammer Waddell while he ventures off on a face-saving mission. Before last night’s game, Waddell actually met with his season ticket holders explaining the team needs a ‘new identity’.

SLAAAPP! Yes it does Don and it needs to start at the top with a new GM.

Detroit Lions fans spent almost a decade as their guy Millen was somehow able to hang onto a job while his team constantly struggled to stay out of the basement-now it’s the Atlanta fans who are falling victim to the same scenario. Millen spent his time firing everyone around him as Waddell has while both their teams remained one of the jokes of their leagues.

Back to that meeting with the fans. Have you ever seen an NHL GM meet personally with the fans to explain a move like DW did before yesterday’s game? That move may be considered a desperate move to save face and one that reeks ‘amateur’.

As the fans and media are trying to cool down after the move that may destroy this franchise, it’s time to deliver one more for good measure SLAP! to the man who helped make it all possible.

Related Articles:

Once Again, Teflon Don Couldn’t Get the Deal Done

Matt Millen Bitch-Slap-of-the-Week

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